About Me

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I am a scholar, writer, dancer, traveler, dreamer, adventurer, and tea connoisseur. I love to travel whether it be through volunteering in the Peace Corps, interning internationally or for my own delight.

Wednesday, November 27, 2013

Giving Thanks: A Not So Short Sappy Thank You Note

It's officially that time of year in America where we all gather together to share a meal together and reflect on the things that we are thankful for. This might get a little sappy so I'm giving you a heads up now. It was this time last year that I opened my email to find an invitation to come and serve in the Peace Corps for two years in Georgia. I was excited, shocked that it was actually happening, and kind of bewildered at the same time because I didn't know that much about this country. After going through numerous interviews, medical shots, paper work, tearful goodbyes, awkward hellos and language ups and downs, I've realized how much I have to be thankful for.

I'm thankful for the families that have taken me, a stranger who constantly butchers their language and probably causes more cultural faux pas than one can count, into their homes and their families during my service. I thank them for putting up with me at times, for being supportive of the ever busy life of a PCV, and having more patience than Gandhi, the Buddha and Mother Teresa put together as I try to understand the language and culture here. We volunteers sometime joke here at Peace Corps Georgia that it should be called Posh Corps Georgia because we are shown so much kindness, warmth, hospitality, patience, food and wine during our service. Definitely nothing compared to what any of us were expecting when we signed our PC applications so long ago stating that we would serve anywhere under any conditions. That's not to say that there aren't any hardships here, there definitely are, just ask my parents about how many times I've complained how cold it is in my room (currently 42 F by the way) or how many times that I've told them that I miss the luxury of taking a hot shower.

As hard as it can be sometimes, the comforts and what you gain here far out weigh those moments. Students greeting you with hugs after a week long absence from school, your host brother thrilled with himself that he just learned to carve his first jack-o-lantern, or the moment when one of your worst students actually learns  how to use go in the past tense. It's moments like these and many others that make up for your string of bad/uncomfortable/frustrating experiences that one often has in life. No one ever said Peace Corps was easy, but it's the experiences and the relationships that you form with others that make it worth it.

I am also thankful for my family back home and friends both old and new. To my family back home: I miss you tons, more than you will ever know. Your fb messages, skype dates and care packages have helped me get through some of the more discouraging moments of my service. I'm grateful for the times I get to talk to you and even more thankful that you continue to listen to me even when it sometimes seems that all I do is complain about the latest thing that happened to me at school. Your support during these past few months and your curiosity about life here in Georgia always keeps me looking forward. I'm going to miss you all this Thanksgiving and Christmas.

To my PCV friends: I don't have to say much to you because I know that you all feel the same way about me as I feel about you. You all are my rock. We have grown together through this journey so far. Facing strange cultural practices, backwardness of village life, going through the agonizing learning process of trying to pronounce the two different "k" and "t" sounds correctly and then being able to differentiate between the two of them, and leaving our family and friends behind for a world unknown to us. Your support and the fact that you won't judge me but fully know where I'm coming from when I say that a good poop status update text from your friend means it's going to be a good day, means the world to me.

To my friends back home: Quit posting pictures of really good looking food and ballin parties! That's so cruel! But for real, thank you for always having my back even if it is a million miles away. I love that I can skype with you weeks or even months at a time a part and we still pick back up as if I still lived down the street in the hood of Knoxville. You are an amazing group of friends whose late night skype dates and crazy town gossip help me when I get slightly homesick. I know that I've missed some of the bigger moments in your all's lives these past few months: weddings, new jobs, engagements, new relationships, babies...yada yada but I want you know that I've trolled that facebook a time or two to keep up with all of it. I'm there in spirit and in laughter.

So i guess what I'm saying in this long sappy post is that I'm thankful for all the support and happiness that you all bring me. My life is very full, very vibrant, and very rewarding because of it.

Thursday, November 7, 2013

Halloween in Sakartvelo!

So I don't know about you but I'm a huge fan of Halloween. Each year I try to decorate my apartment, create the perfect Halloween costume, watch all the scary movies I can, carve pumpkins, and of course pig out on candy. I decided that though this year will definitely be different, that I would try to bring Halloween to Sakartvelo (What Georgians call Georgia). Georgians, like most of the world don't celebrate Halloween, so finding Halloween themed stuff was difficult. I was fortunate enough however to receive some Halloween decorations in a care package that my aunt had sent me.  My brother, my sister and I hung orange and black streamers around our living room.  Finding pumpkins in my town was also a challenge because the pumpkin season doesn't start until around Christmas time and even then, the pumpkins that are available are usually more green than orange and are often cantaloupe sized. (This proved to be a problem when we tried to use the pumpkin carving kit that my mom sent because all the pumpkins were way to small for the designs). Despite this, we were able to create some very cute jack-o-lanterns. My family and I had the most pimped out house in all of Georgia.
Persimmon/rouge apple jack-o-lanterns

My family's pumpkins 
Seeing as I'm a teacher to 100+ kids, I decided to do a fall festival in the school gym after school on Halloween. To prepare for this I asked each grade to draw and label pictures of bats, monsters, ghosts, spiders, skeletons, or pumpkins. (These pictures served as decorations in the gym during the party). I also asked if students could either donate or bring their own pumpkins/persimmons from home since the bazaar in my town was not selling pumpkins yet. (Most of these kids have a pumpkin or two growing in their backyard. The persimmons were for backup if they could not locate a pumpkin). On Halloween afternoon after classes, my students dressed up in their costumes and attended the fall festival. We had a game of duck duck goose, bobbing for apples, apples on a string, pumpkin carving contest, costume contest and a make your own scary popcorn hand station (those of you from east TN know what I'm talking about).
My sister, my brother (part cat, part superman, part TN volunteer) and me as a cat
Apple bobbing
My counterpart Zaira and I 
The party was successful but in a chaotic way. It was just me, my two counterparts and a few leader girls that were trying to keep the 80+ kids out of pandemonium. I had kids swarming everywhere demanding plastic spider rings and candy....a little less organized than I had planned.

After all of this planning and facilitating, I decided to attend PC volunteer party in the city of Kutaisi planned by my friends Ann and Lady. About 20 something volunteers from all over Georgia got together this past weekend to play a city wide assassin's game. We were handed a map of Kutaisi with all of the mission spots labeled on it, as well as the name of the person in our group we were trying to "kill" and how to "kill" them. For my target, I had to somehow get a hold of my friend's phone without them knowing that that was my mission. When a new group of friends approached us in the city, we would all become suspicious and paranoid of them until we learned who was "dead" and therefore not playing and who was still alive and hunting. It was definitely a good way to see the sites of Kutaisi while still having some kind of involvement with the rest of the larger group.
Some of us at lunch (first time I've had Chinese food in Georgia!!!)
Assassin Mugshot ("Arrested for kidnapping a wine truck")


Sunday, October 6, 2013

Winter is Coming!!!

In the words of Ned Stark, "Winter is coming". Last night was the first night that I slept in my blue meanie long johns (you read correctly, blue meanie long johns) AND my sleeping bag in my room. I can tell this is going to be a harsh winter.

Update: I survived my first week of teaching. There are a few hiccups here and there like the fact that my whole fifth grade class does not have textbooks or the fact that 4th, 5th and 6th grade all have the same textbook and are essentially learning the same thing. On Friday however I was invited to attend a Teachers' Day concert to celebrate teachers around the world so that was nice. It's still weird to be called Miss Anneke in class...or the fact that I have to discipline these kids for not doing their homework . Oh well. I'm going to see if a rewards program with a chance to select a prize from the prize box will inspire more of my kids to complete and bring their homework to class.

On a completely different note, yesterday I learned how to bake bread Georgian style and how to make Churchkhela, a Georgian treat consisting of strung walnuts dipped into a thickened grape juice goo. Very good. Below are some of my pictures from yesterday.


Bread stuck to the inside wall of the kiln/oven thing


Wrangled me a loaf of bread from the oven with my hook
Before...
After!! Freshly made Churchkhela


My mom and I

My sister and I


Yum yum!

Sunday, September 22, 2013

School Days

So I just finished my first week of school. (Whew!) I've been looking forward to/dreading this day but it was actually quite fun. The first day of Georgia as I have now learned is a day of celebration. It is far from the typical American first day of school where we go into our homerooms, have book lists, syllabi, and supplies lists handed out. Not here. Georgians, if you haven't figured out from my many posts of food, dancing, and supras, love to celebrate! They are very good at it and the first day of school was no exception. All of the parents, students and teachers gathered on the front lawn of the school facing the school steps to watch the Back to School Program. There were speeches given by teachers about their goals for the new year as well as speeches from my director about how well academically the school did last year. Afterwards there were a series of traditional dances performed by the school's students. After the program was finished the students, teachers and parents alike went to their students' classrooms in order to pick up the new textbooks for the year. I wandered around the school looking slightly confused (my permanent face in Georgia) greeting excited students that would run up to me and yell Hello. After talking to a few of the students I finally found my sister's classroom (on the third floor...need to remember that). I was greeted by a dead chipmunk on the floor as well as a group of 11th grade boys who would a min later pick up the chipmunk and dangle it in front the girls seated next to the door.

Well after all of this school excitement I decided to return home and take a 2pm nap (a practice that is slowly developing into a habit). I was however informed that my mother and her friends were planning a back to school supra at our house later that evening. Five women rushed into my home around five and commandeered my family's kitchen. They brought beer, pickled peppers, sausage, eggs, cake, beer, wine, onions, tomatos, pork, sauce, xinkali, and even glass plates. Within 30 mins we had ourselves a full blown feast.  We ended the night with a good ole fashioned Disco party!

The rest of the week I observed my counterparts' English classes. This really boiled down to me answering a few questions about myself to my students (Do you like jewelry? What are your parents names? Are you married? Do have friends?)  and then creepily lurking near the back of the class to take notes about each individual class and my counterparts' teaching styles. I will continue observing classes next week and then come Friday I'll sit down with my teachers and pick which grades I want to teach. I need to at least teach 18 hours to meet PC standards but I'm thinking of teaching a little extra and doing a full 20 instead. When I told my counterparts about this plan to teach 20 they thought i was crazy. My counterparts here teach about 18 hours each. They were astonished that teachers back in the states teach full time. Apparently 18 hours is pushing it here, how else could they have their day off in the mid of the week. Strange world Georgia.

Below are some pics from the week.
Everybody gathering for the celebration

Celebration banner!

My neighbor/student performing a traditional Georgian dance

More dancing

Cute students singing a song about rain and umbrellas

Poor Chip...or is that Dale?!

Back to School Women's supra...these are the best!

Shake it like a Polaroid picture!

Monday, September 9, 2013

Summer Camp Sagarejo Style

So if you’ve been following along, one of the activities I have to do before I start school is plan and implement a summer camp for my community. Not an easy feat when you lack materials, money and oh I don’t know…basic communication with vendors, students and others alike. However my camp ran really smoothly thanks to the help of my two counterparts and my sister and her friends. They helped me out with translation and guidance when I needed it.

The camp was 5 days long with each day being a different theme. Themes are as follows: Introduction Day, Sports Day, Arts & Crafts Day, Pop Culture Day and Nature Day.  I would open each day by passing out an attendance bead to each of the campers…this served as an incentive for the campers to come back each day. By the end of the week the campers who attended every day of camp would have enough beads to make a summer camp bracelet. After the bead passing and roll call, the students and I would warm up by dancing the call and response song called “Funky Chicken”.  After “Funky Chicken” I would give the day’s vocabulary lists to the campers and go over each word to make sure that they knew them. Afterwards we would do various activities and games that involved the words from the words list of that particular day.

I tried yet again to teach kickball to another group of Georgian students….just as hard as the first time but by the end of the hour they had a pretty good grasp on the rules and such.

I think they activity the kids loved the most was the clothing relay game. I brought some articles of clothing for this activity and asked each student to bring one article of clothing for this activity as well. I divided the clothing into two piles, each pile having the same amount of shirts, pants, hats etc. as well as equal numbers of colors and patterns. I would shout out an article of clothing or a color and each time would have to find the item and then run to the other side of the room and dress their other team member. They got so into it!

The other activity that was a huge success was the making of God’s Eyes. This was a craft that my family and I would do when we would go camping. All you need is two small sticks and some yarn and presto a cool craft and as I have come to realize from my memories of family camping… a way to easily keep kids occupied and in one place.

Besides god’s eyes, the clothing relay game and kickball we also  did the hokey pokey to learn body parts, made collages from magazines (each student had to spell their name, I love Georgia, include a picture they liked and spell out one new word that they learned that day), wrote poems with 3 new vocabulary words, went on a nature scavenger hunt, a human treasure hunt (students had find other students in the classroom who had something in common with something on their list…asking questions in English of course), watched and English film (Finding Nemo), made team posters and team songs, and had a celebration picnic at the end of our last day of camp

Though the camp had a lot more work/planning/improvising than I had originally anticipated…it all worked out in the end.

Below are pictures from my camp…my counterpart Zaira took most of these photos

Playing Everybody who has...
Maka, one of my students, and her collage
I know you all are jealous of my beautiful handwriting...
Just a sample of some of the god's eyes made...my students picked the craft right up 
Checking off the Nature Scavenger Hunt list...(and for your information I'm thinking...not picking my nose)

Last day of camp supra picnic 
The infamous clothing relay
Learning body parts and action words with the help of the Hokey Pokey
Kickball! The sheets of my summer camp schedule also doubled as bases
Nature hike exploring
Pictures and collages time!
One of the team posters...We had team Funny Children (poster above) and team Smile
Woot Go Sagarejo's 2013 Summer Camp!

Lost in the Mountains

I've been pretty busy the last week and a half and its about to get even more hectic with school starting in less than three weeks.  Let me bring you up to date with what I've been busy with:

A few weekends ago I went on a overnight camping trip with some of the other G13 and G12s here in Georgia. Our training manager Tengo planned the trip and took us to the Khevsureti area of Georgia. This area was one of the most beautiful most unreal places I have ever seen! The mountains are so tall and numerous that you feel like they could easily be swallowed up into them. Also it is impossible to capture such a sight on camera though I did attempt to do it. I left on Friday and stayed the night in Tbilisi so I could be ready to meet our tour marshutkas that were leaving around 7am on Saturday. On our trip we saw some of the oldest establishments in Georgia. We saw Shatili and Musto….those were the biggest highlights of our trip. Shatili is this old fortress from the medieval century. It was so cool because it was like a maze trying to explore all the building because they were all connected to each other in some form or fashion. Mutso is an old fortress with more than 30 something fortified towers

Below are some pictures of Shatili  and Mutso and a Wikipedia link about each of them too.

Shatili Info and Mutso Info


Datvisjvari Pass (the area that separates Southern and Northern Khevsureti)
Lebaiskari (small abandoned village)

Shatili, an old town-museum, built between 
the 7th and 13th centuries

More Shatili pics
Anatori crypts (a dead village with the history of the Black Death)




Our campsite for the night...we hiked up to the abandoned village in the top left of this pic


Mutso, 30 medieval fortified towers arranged on vertical terraces and overlooking Mutso-Ardoti gorge





After this weekend trip I went to Lagodekhi Nature Reserve with my sister Mari to go explore the park's hiking trails and waterfalls. My friend Aaron works at the park and he was kind enough to be our trail guide for the day.

My sister Mari on our day hike


Aaron proud of his falls
Woot made it!